1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chair assembly (for dental and other medical treatment) comprising a treatment chair and a chair base which houses a chair elevating mechanism such as a hydraulic cylinder and is placed on the floor.
2. Prior Art
Generally, the treatment chair of the treatment chair assembly of this kind is constructed to be completely removable from the chair base.
The treatment instrument holding section, treatment instrument tube holding section, instrument drive/control unit, etc. of the treatment chair assembly are built in the chair base.
The above-mentioned conventional treatment chair assembly has a mechanism disposed between the chair base and the treatment chair to prevent the treatment chair from becoming loose and dislocating when a patient gets on and off the treatment chair during normal treatment. When it is necessary to maintain, check or repair the chair elevating mechanism or the instrument drive/control unit, the treatment chair, which is a large wide board covered with a cushion, must be removed from the treatment chair base and placed at a different position. This requires a great deal of labor and the treatment chair occupies a large space in a treatment room. The removed treatment chair may be stained or broken.
The treatment chair is interchangeable with that for a different chair base, since the instrument drive/control unit is housed in the chair base. However, this interchangeability is not obtained for chair bases having instrument drive/control units for different instruments. A specific instrument is usually used for one treatment chair assembly.
Furthermore, since the instrument tubes and the instrument holding sections are complicatedly built in the chair base, simple sterilization using alcohol for example is possible, but complete sterilization is difficult. This is not good for sanitation.